Let’s remember when President Kennedy visited the Tri-Cities for Handford’s groundbreaking ceremony, on this day in 1963 (September 26)
President Kennedy didn’t make all that many trips to the Northwest during his too-brief presidency, but the last time he did was 56 years ago today, when he visited the groundbreaking ceremony for Hanford.
As Cassandra Tate of HistoryLink writes:
On September 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) participates in groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of a dual-purpose reactor — designated the N Reactor — at the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Washington. The reactor was the ninth to be built at Hanford but the first designed to produce both weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs and electricity for commercial and domestic use. Kennedy’s visit commemorated both the start of plutonium production at the facility and the beginning of construction of its power-generating component.
His appearance was part of a 10,000-mile, 11-state, five-day journey through the West. It was billed by the White House as a nonpolitical review of the region’s natural resources, but as William W. Prochnau, political reporter for The Seattle Times, pointed out, the itinerary took Kennedy into areas that had generally spurned him in the 1960 presidential election.
Of course, President Kennedy would only live about six more weeks.
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